After the Flèche Wallone WC, I was able to stay in the same place for 6 days.  I tried to hide out a little, get in some good training, and get myself in a normal daily rhythm.  Well, at least as normal as I could get into while living in a hotel.  But as fast as I could settle in, I was actually back on the road again! This time, I was sitting in a car with Marie and Gerbin driving about 800km from Nϋrnberg to the very eastern edge of the Czech Republic for the four day, five stage Grazie Orlová Tour.

The race started with a 105km stage that finished on a small climb into the town of Stamberk.  My day was a little bit frustrating.  I punctured in the second half of the race, and as I was in the caravan chasing back onto the back of the peloton, I could see the break going away up the road.  As a friend says, “punctures happen.”  The good news was that Trixie was in the split, and she would go on to finish second in the stage.  She was certainly in a position to strike for the overall.

The second day brought 125km’s of heavy racing.  We had a solid Cat 1 climb that topped out about 43km into the race that was followed by two more Cat 1’s, a Cat 2, and then the finish.  Trixie and I went for it early.  I told her that I would ride hard on the first climb, and then we would make decisions and race from there.  It worked out well.  At the top, we only had the two of us, and Luperini was close enough to wait.  (We thought we might get some help since we still had 90km to go!)  Tactically, though, she wasn’t in a good position and chose not to work until the break was established 40km later.  Trixie and I were more focused on getting the team the yellow jersey, so until she did help, I rode really hard for those 40k’s trying to drive the break out as far as possible.   Once La Lupe started to work, Trixie could also start to ride.  With the group working together, we managed to maintain our lead for the final 50km thus putting Trixie into the overall lead, and I actually ended up in the mountain jersey.  Good, hard day at the office. 

The next day brought two stages, a morning 19km time trial, and a short 70km circuit race.  The TT went really well.  I certainly didn’t feel great after the previous day’s effort, but I was still motivated to go for the stage win.  And, it was super cool to wear the rainbows and win again!  Even better, though, was that Trixie put time on the 2^nd and 3^rd place riders with her second place finish.  We were solidly in the lead now. 

The afternoon stage brought a huge team effort from Charlotte, Eva, Madi, and Marie.  Lotte made the break, while Eva, Madi, and Marie rolled the blue train around the circuit keeping things under control.  It looked really good from behind J. 

The final day was a little bit dangerous, with Trixie, Lotte, and I making a split of about 18 riders early in the race.  Things were quite aggressive, so we had to ride hard to protect the yellow.  Trixie was still good, though, so there was never any concern… just hard work.

And that.. my friends, was a really hard 4 days of racing for the bank account.  I have to say that it was very cool to get a chance to sell out my energy for a very classy and well respected rider like Trixie.  Of course, it was also good for me to get the mountain jersey and the TT stage win.